David C. Foote, Associate AIA, has personally designed one thousand five hundred thirty two residences since 1986 across Ventura County, Los Angeles County, and Southern California. Every drawing started by the same pencil.
David C. Foote, Associate AIA, founded the residential design practice that bears his name in January 1987 at 501 Mobil Avenue, Suite A, in Camarillo. He has been at the same desk, in the same office, with the same round oak table where every client conversation begins, ever since. The practice is now in its fortieth year and its one thousand five hundred thirty second home.
David holds the Associate AIA designation from the American Institute of Architects, membership number 30121827. He is also an active member of the International Code Council, the United States Green Building Council, the National Kitchen and Bath Association, the American Institute of Building Design, and the National Association of Home Builders. These affiliations represent continuing education, peer review, and accountability to the craft that most private practitioners skip. David has never missed a year.
The practice covers the full arc of residential design. Custom homes from studies through construction documents. Room additions and second story additions on existing homes. Fire restoration and wildfire rebuild work, a specialty that deepened after the Thomas, Woolsey, Mountain, and Palisades fires. Accessory dwelling unit design under California Government Code 66313 through 66332. Title 24 energy compliance integrated in house rather than outsourced. Two decades of Best of Houzz recognition and a consistent five star reputation across every platform that tracks residential designers.
Most firms delegate. David draws every project himself. From the first conceptual sketch to the final construction document that lands on a contractor's table, there is one hand behind the work and one Associate AIA accountable for the result. His clients still get his personal cell phone number. His published rate is $350 an hour. His typical project begins at roughly twenty five thousand dollars and runs through construction administration to the day the Certificate of Occupancy is issued. In forty years, David has never hired a salesperson and has never advertised.
David founds D.C. Foote, Inc. at 501 Mobil Avenue. The first project is a single story custom home in Camarillo for a family relocating from the San Fernando Valley. Drafting is done by hand on vellum. The firm is small, the rate is modest, and every conversation happens at a round oak table that is still in the office today.
After the January quake, the practice shifts toward structural retrofit and seismic redesign. David becomes intimately familiar with how older homes actually fail, which shapes every custom home he draws afterward. The work teaches him to design for the forces most designers never see.
California adopts the most aggressive residential energy code in the country. Most residential designers outsource compliance to consultants. David brings it in house, becoming one of the first private practitioners to integrate Title 24 analysis directly into his design workflow. It saves his clients money and shortens permit review.
The Thomas Fire burns through Ventura, Santa Paula, and Ojai. David is retained by dozens of families whose homes were lost. Fire restoration becomes a specialty that deepens after the Woolsey, Mountain, and Palisades fires in the following years. This is work measured not in billable hours but in lives rebuilt.
California opens the ADU floodgates with SB 9, SB 10, and streamlined permitting. David spins up a dedicated ADU practice that has grown into its own brand. Nine signature projects across Camarillo, Ventura, Oxnard, and Oakview form the portfolio that defines the ADU side of the firm today.
The practice passes fifteen hundred completed projects. David is now the first residential designer in the region to publish a transparent fee schedule, adopt AI intake for new clients, and build a dedicated website for his ADU work. The pencil is still sharpened every morning.
Continuing education is how a forty year designer stays sharp. David maintains active membership in six professional organizations. Each represents ongoing coursework, peer review, and accountability to the craft.
A well designed home is a quiet home. You do not notice what is there. You only notice that everything feels exactly right.David C. Foote · Principal Designer, Associate AIA
Every project starts with a conversation about morning routines, where the coffee gets made, which windows catch the afternoon light, which room hosts the holidays. The design follows the life, never the other way around.
David draws every project himself and coordinates every consultant. There is no junior designer learning on your house. There is no principal handing off to an associate once the fee is collected. The person who listens to you is the person who solves for you.
California's residential energy code gets stricter every year. Most designers treat it as a hurdle. David treats it as a design constraint that produces better homes: more insulation, smarter orientation, less wasted energy. The code becomes a collaborator.
Start your project online. David will personally review your submission and call within one business day.